


Wayfinder

by Splintered_Star



Category: Moana (2016)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-07
Updated: 2016-12-07
Packaged: 2018-09-07 00:59:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8776798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Splintered_Star/pseuds/Splintered_Star
Summary: Moana did not come back from the ocean a different person, but sometimes it feels like she's the only person who knows that.





	

Maui settles on the stone next to her in a flash of light. After a moment of silence where she doesn’t acknowledge him, he pokes her in the shoulder. She looks up at him and blows her hair out of her face in a huff. It’s not been a good day.

“… Someone wanted me to bless their baby.” Moana says, staring out at the ocean. “The new couple – I told you about them? – they brought their little girl and asked me to touch her with the hand that touched te Fiti.” She glares down at the hand in question. “I used this hand to help a pig give birth last week. But apparently it’s /sacred/ now.” Her shoulders slump. “She wouldn’t even look me in the eye when she said it. I grew up with her.”

Moana is twenty two, unmarried, and slowly realizing that while her people love her they are equally wary of her. She is still Moana, chief and chief’s daughter, cousin and age-mate – but she is also Moana, wayfinder, beloved of the sea and god-touched. She came back Other, in a way that she was not when she left.

“….it’s rough, kid, I know.” Maui says, tossing his hook absently. “Humans. They love ya, but only at arm’s length.”

“I’m not a demi god,” she mutters, annoyed at him. Maui’s started talking about her like they’re the same. Moana likes that even less.

“You could be.” Maui says, casual, like it was nothing. Moana stares at him and he shrugs, still focused on his hook. “I figure te Fiti owes you one huge favor, and I’ve gotta bit of leverage these days myself, so….” Moana continues to stare. “I mean, the offer’s open, so, ya know. No rush.”

Moana thinks about it. She really does. About having all the power people expect her to, about being able to help her people even more than she can now. About being truly Other, and not just this half way state, where she is almost-familiar but not quite.

Moana stretches her arms above her head, just to feel the healing skin on her back. She’s finally gotten a tattoo – a manta ray stretching across her shoulders, just like her grandmother. She closes her eyes, and listens not to the ocean but to herself.

When she is older, she decides, she will marry and have an island full of children who call her “auntie” and a few who call her “mom”. She will teach how to listen to the sea, and how to speak to it, and tell the stories of her life and all those who came before.  Some of the children have already started calling out for “Grandmother Manta!” whenever a ray passes their boats, and it fills Moana’s heart like a warm breeze every time.

And when she is older still, she will be returned to the sea, because that’s what they’ll call it then, “returning to the sea.” And she will fly with her Grandmother Manta Ray, and touch every inch of the ocean.

But right now, she is young, and loves her people, and she is sure that they love her back though they do not always know how. She is young, and human, and happy with it.

“Thanks, but I think I’m okay.”


End file.
